Factors driving business model innovation in sample case studies in South Africa

Abstract

In an environment of changing customer needs, technological advancement and digitization, the importance of business model innovation in supporting companies to accrue benefits from increased digitization while counteracting threats has intensified. Factors driving business model innovation could be of value in facilitating business model innovation success and accrue benefits from increasing digitization. As the factors driving business model innovation are often triggers for the next cycle, however, there is limited empirical research on factors driving business model innovation. This paper presents empirical findings on factors driving business model innovation using unstructured interviews with nine executives from five sample companies in South Africa. Main finding from the research indicate that both external and internal factors such as existential crises, serve as valuable triggers for business model innovation. Furthermore, entrepreneurial inspirational leadership and quality of staff are important conditions for business model innovation success. The study findings imply that both companies and policymakers who seek to facilitate innovation need to take into account the impact of the business model innovation triggers on business model innovation success. The main contribution of the paper is the empirical finding on factors driving business model innovation using as a lens the sample case study companies.

Keywords:

• business model innovation drivers
• technological factors
• market factors
• regulatory factors
• organizational factors

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the North-West University’s Mrs Cecile van Zyl for language editing support with the manuscript. The paper is based on the work that the first author conducted as part of Doctoral studies at the University of Witwatersrand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Research Innovation Fund (ZA); Banking Sector Education and Training Authority ((BANKSETA) (ZA); University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.